The athletic department at Contra Costa College is in talks with a Bay Area organization to begin filming and streaming the football team’s home games online.

At their weekly meeting, which is to be held today at 2:30 p.m. in AA-207, the Associated Students Union will discuss if the board should fund the online streaming venture.

Athletic Director John Wade approached the ASU on Sept. 10, during its weekly meeting. Wade presented the proposal he received from the company Bay Area Sports TV. He said the company wishes to broadcast football games online.

BASTV is a company that films and live streams high school, collegiate, semi-professional sports games and even professional minor league baseball games. BASTV was formed earlier this year, from what was Vallejo Sports. Vallejo Sports was an organization that filmed sports games in the Vallejo community; something the group has done for the last three years.
“We’re talking about doing something we’ve never done before,” Wade said.

He said other colleges stream their games, and the attention it draws those programs is substantial.
Skyline College is one example of a community college that streams athletic events online. Skyline Dean of Kinesiology and Athletic Director Joe Morello said Skyline originally purchased video equipment in order to stream the college’s graduation ceremonies online.

He said that after the purchase, the college was looking for a way to use the equipment more than once a year and that is when they began streaming basketball games online.

“I was shocked by the numbers of people watching,” Morello said. “Some games we would have 200-300 people watching it online; people who, for whatever reason, could not physically attend the games.”
Morello said that his department advertises the streaming games through no extraordinary means.

“We let students know about the event through the student alert system,” Morello said. “We also directly contact the other team and put a link up on our website. We pretty much rely on word of mouth and social media to get the word out.”

Students David Navarro and Ji’ere Hogan said they would watch football games that were streamed online.
“It would just be way more convenient,” Navarro said.

Wade said that BASTV wishes to broadcast CCC’s home games, and the cost would be approximately $325-$400 per game.

During the Sept. 10 ASU meeting, ASU President Antone Agnitsch said that the board should consider Wade’s proposal and discuss the issue during today’s meeting in AA-207 at 2:30 p.m.

Senator Luana Waters and Agnitsch dominated the conversation, and most of what was said was in favor of supporting Wade’s program.

Hogan said the ASU should support the athletic department’s proposal, but he warned that the board should be careful with student’s money.

“They (the ASU) should help fund it, but maybe go in for something close to 50-50,” Hogan said. “They should be responsible and help fund it, but not completely.”

Wade said during the ASU meeting that the athletic department was willing to partner with the ASU and pay for the cost of some of the four remaining home games to be streamed.

Tim Banks, BASTV’s camera crew chief, said that the cost of streaming the games breaks down as follows: $100 per game for a sports commentator, $150 for the cameras and camera switcher and another $150 for insurance.

“There could always be more cameras if (the college) wants more angles, but that’d cost more” Banks said.
He said his cameramen work for about $15 per hour. The additional cost per cameraman to the athletic department would be approximately $75, he said.

Banks said the way the streaming would work would be that he would provide the college a link they could put on the website, and students could watch the game either at the college’s website, or at bayareasports.tv.

Banks said the cameras he uses are the JVC Professional 600 and 150 models, which record in high definition.

He said he would need about 3 hours to set up his equipment to film.

Part of the partnership in streaming CCC’s games would require that BASTV be regularly updated with correct rosters and schedules, he said. The liaison between Banks’ company and CCC would be Tim Fitzgerald, another BASTV employee.

Morello stressed the ability to live stream college events online helped foster a bigger community at Skyline.

“It is just something really nice you can do for students,” Morello said. “There are lots of events outside of athletics a college can stream.”